USS Adelante (SP-765)
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| History | |
|---|---|
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| Name: | USS Adelante (SP-765) |
| Builder: | Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engineering Works, Chester, Pennsylvania |
| Launched: | 1883 |
| Acquired: | 25 August 1918 |
| Commissioned: | 17 December 1918 |
| Decommissioned: | 18 August 1919 |
| Fate: | Sold, 25 March 1920 to J. Daniel Gully, Brooklyn, NY; Abandoned, 1 January 1941 due to age and deterioration. |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 142 |
| Length: | 138 ft (42 m) |
| Beam: | 20 ft 7 in (6.27 m) |
| Draft: | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | steam, one shaft |
| Speed: | 13 Knots |
| Complement: | 38 |
The iron-hulled, single-screw steam yacht Utowana was completed in 1883 at Chester, Pennsylvania, by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engineering Works, and, over the ensuing years, was renamed twice — first to Oneida (1887), then to Adelante (1913). She was taken over by the U.S. Navy in August 1918 and commissioned as USS Adelante (SP-765) in December 1918. Employed in setting up radio compass stations along the Maine coast, she was also used as a boarding boat, meeting vessels arriving off the port of Boston. USS Adelante was decommissioned in August 1919 and sold in March 1920, subsequently operating as a commercial tow boat under the names John Gully and Salvager. The ship was abandoned in 1941.
The Utowana was renamed the Oneida by prominent New York City banker Elias Cornelius Benedict, one of the world's leading yachtsman, who acquired the yacht in 1887. Among the friends and distinguished guests Benedict hosted were Edwin Booth, Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lawrence Barrett, who conceived The Players club while being entertained on the Oneida in 1887.
The Oneida served as an impromptu hospital on 1 July 1893, when doctors performed a secret operation on Benedict's close friend, President Grover Cleveland. A cancerous growth was removed from Cleveland's upper jaw as the ship cruised in the East River. Such secrecy had been deemed necessary in order avoid creating a greater financial panic in the country.
In March 1913, Benedict purchased a larger yacht that he christened the Oneida. He renamed the "old" Oneida the Adelante and converted her to a tow vessel.
Inspected by the Navy in the 1st Naval District on 9 July 1918, for potential use as a "tow boat," Adelante was apparently not delivered to the Navy until 25 August 1918. Routing instructions indicate that she spent late July in coastwise operations between Philadelphia, New York, Providence, and Boston. Contemporary Navy documentation lists her as a "tug." Her owner at that time (1918), and master, was Theodore Krumm of Melrose, Massachusetts.
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